Dvar Torah given at Kehilat Hadar June 2, 2018 הָאִ֥ישׁ מֹשֶׁ֖ה עָנָ֣ו מְאֹ֑ד מִכֹּל֙ הָֽאָדָ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הָאֲדָמָֽה׃ Now Moses was very humble, more so than any other person on the face of the earth. This verse from our parashah has always bothered me for a number of reasons: Why tell us this in context is when Moses’s siblings are gossiping about his Kushite wife? Moshe meets with heads of state and has face-to-face conversations with God. The theme of humility doesn’t really fit in here. The phrasing, most humble man on the face of the earth is particularly jarring. Even saying “very humble” feels at cross purposes with the idea of humility. If you believe that Moshe wrote down the Torah this feels even more incongruous. If Moses was actually humble, would he really have written this verse about himself? Is this even true? Was there no other person on the planet as humble as Moses? How would anyone know?

Dvar Torah given at Kehilat Hadar Shavuot Retreat May 19, 2018 Parashat Bamidbar deals with counting the people. And oftentimes, this section is glossed over because counting and lists are boring. / Obviously, the Torah thinks there’s something of interest here, as do I, which is why I’m bringing it up. Looking at the relevent verses:

Dvar Torah given at Ramah Darom Passover Retreat April 5, 2018 On seder night we experience leaving Egypt, on the 7th day of Pesah is the day of crossing the Red Sea. We tend to think of this as a celebration. Shirat Hayam, the poem glorifying God for performing this miracle is part of our daily liturgy. And it tends to be through this lens that we think back on this event. But in the leining that we just read we see that this is not exactly how it happened. The Israelites, at the shore of the sea saw the Egyptians coming after them what do they do? They complain: